Two former university officials and an ex-Miaoli County official received prison terms and fines for a labor scam that forced Ugandan students to toil in factories instead of studying in Taiwan, the Changhua District Court said on Wednesday.
In 2019, the then-dean of student affairs at Chung Chou University of Science and Technology, surnamed Chai (柴), and the head of the school’s extension education center, surnamed Lan (藍), lured 16 Ugandan nationals into coming to study at the university.
They told the students they would be given hefty scholarships and paid internships in the high-tech industry, during a recruitment event run by a hotelier, surnamed Lin (林), at his hotel in Uganda, the district court said in a press release.
Photo courtesy of the National Immigration Agency via CNA
However, they withheld the fact that the students would have to cover their living costs and that there was no guarantee of finding work.
Upon arriving in Taiwan, the students were told they owed the school money for their expenses and would have to do many hours of labor-intensive factory work to repay their debt.
The work was organized at various factories through a broker surnamed Chen (陳).
The case came to light in January 2022 following media reports.
In a bid to avoid penalties, Chen met with then-deputy head of the Miaoli County Labor and Youth Development Department Tu Jung-hui (涂榮輝), who pressured a staffer, surnamed Liao (廖), not to issue fines and help conceal the repeated contraventions by the labor agency and the factories.
Chai, Lan and Lin were found guilty of running a labor trafficking scheme and of exploitation, the district court ruling handed down on Thursday last week said.
Tu and Liao were convicted of seeking unlawful gains for themselves or others, as stipulated in the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Tu was given a seven-year sentence and a fine of NT$2.4 million (US$73,778), and deprived of his civil rights for five years.
Chai was sentenced to a jail term of five years and six months, and given a fine of NT$500,000 for contravening the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法).
Lan was given a five-year sentence and a fine of NT$700,000, while Lin got two years and 10 months, and a fine of NT$300,000.
Chen was sentenced to two years in prison and given a fine of NT$600,000 for his role in labor exploitation under the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.
As Liao confessed during the investigation, did not profit from his crime and engaged in illegal behavior under pressure, the court exempted him from punishment, the press release said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS